So I decided to make some carrot juice for her! I’d just gotten a fancy new juicer and was excited to show it off.

That juicer, like so many of my kitchen gadgets, now sits in my cupboard, unused.

Go figure.

Anyway, grandma said she’d love some!

Because I had a captive audience, I decided to roll my brains all over the counter.

And the rolling began.

During WWII, The British were just developing airborne radar technology. To keep their island safe from the Luftwaffe {the Nazi air force}, they built a chain of radar towers along the southern coast.

Due to this radar technology, the British air force was able to detect the fighters at night, and suddenly their night attacks became deadly accurate.

One of these night fighters was John Cunningham. He was the first night fighter ace.

He was good–very good!–and the British people went crazy after him. Afraid that their airborne radar secret might get out, the Air Ministry attributed John’s success to one thing:

Carrots.

John ate a lot of carrots, they said, and that’s what made him see so well at night! The propaganda was rolled out with gusto.

Even Walt Disney got into the mix, sending three lovable carrot characters to get the word out. Carroty George, Pop Carrot, Clara Carrot.

Carrots would help you see in the blackout.

It turns out that this is only kind of true in that if you don’t have vitamin A {found in carrots}, you’ll go blind. But they don’t give you cat-at-night vision.

John Cunningham was given the nickname “Cat Eyes.” Which he hated, because it wasn’t true, but he gritted his teeth and played along. The British people ate it up…literally! And luckily enough…carrots weren’t rationed during WW2.

Carrots on a stick…mmmmm!

So that’s the story. I wonder how many children ended up with orange skin.

My mother told me eating the crusts on my sandwiches would give me curly hair. She pointed to two of my cousins (sisters) as proof – one who refused to eat crusts, and had straight hair, and the other who ate her crusts, and had curly.

I think it was mostly because Mother didn’t want to go to the effort of cutting off and throwing out crusts.